CBC Health News

Advocates with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and a Dalhousie medical student have been working on initiatives to improve health care for patients with sight loss.

Parents and experts are sounding the alarm about unregulated anabolic steroid use happening as a result of the pressure young men face to reach a certain ideal body type. Studies also suggest a disorder called muscle dysmorphia is becoming increasingly common.

According to Maureen Palmer, an author and journalist, a person's relationship with alcohol is far more nuanced than a simple question of whether they're an alcoholic or not.

During the recent provincial election, all three main political parties pledged to make parking at health-care facilities free. The Progressive Conservatives, who won the election, have not said when they will make good on the promise.

Headlines warning people to throw out their black plastic kitchen utensils live on, as do social media posts warning of “secret toxins” in your kitchen. Less prominent? A correction to the peer-reviewed study those headlines were based on.

Staffing smaller ERs in Canada is a struggle for many provinces. That's why some health authorities are relying on a doctor working virtually and the nurses on the ground to keep the doors open.

The Saskatchewan government has signed an agreement with Ottawa to provide funding to pharmaceutical drugs to three drugs for rare diseases, and will participate in a national plan for screening for rare diseases.

Provincial and territorial health plans will cover primary care provided by nurse practitioners, pharmacists and midwives starting next year, federal Health Minister Mark Holland announced on Friday.

Nunavut is looking for the "creativity and ingenuity of the community members" to reduce suicide and the use of alcohol and drugs. A researcher echoes the need to address the dynamic factors that impact mental health.

A Winnipeg woman who trained as a doctor in the Philippines says she doesn't trust the Manitoba health care system after waiting 24 hours for care at the Health Sciences Centre.

Some Canadians are celebrating a major autism organization's decision to pull out of the country, highlighting a shift in the way people think about autism. But others say the group's positive contributions shouldn't be dismissed so quickly.

A stomach illness outbreak at the University of Guelph is part of a trend that has experts noticing a rise in stomach bugs causing vomiting and diarrhea. 

B.C. Children's Hospital says a 13-year-old girl who spent weeks in hospital with avian flu was discharged on Tuesday.

An Ontario public health unit is reminding people to wash their hands and avoid people who aren't feeling well as the number of University of Guelph students with gastroenteritis has grown to 190, leading to the school pausing some programs.

Hospitals across P.E.I. are over capacity, leading to hours-long wait times in the province's emergency rooms and limited bed availability, Health P.E.I. said in a news release Thursday afternoon.  

A new report by Ontario's municipalities says more than 80,000 people were homeless last year. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario says the groundbreaking report is believed to be the most accurate picture of provincewide homelessness to date.

When Stephanie Harrington started going to bereavement support groups after the loss of her brother, the room was filled with parents who had lost children. But she said the grief parents feel can be much different than what siblings experience.

An increasing number of overdose deaths in Ontario involves the use of more than one drug, with the combination of opioids and stimulants proving to be especially dangerous, a new report says.

The University of Guelph is monitoring a cluster of gastroenteritis cases predominantly in its South Residence. The first reports of the stomach flu were Monday and the number of self-reported cases has since risen to at least 60 as of Wednesday afternoon.

Rising cases of common respiratory illnesses in China and elsewhere around the Northern Hemisphere are within the range expected for winter, WHO says.